There are a number of commercial packages available for the planning and scheduling of tasks. Unfortunately, the tools for planning are not integrated with the tools required to subsequently track against those plans. Three areas can benefit from some level of automation.

• Automated Scheduling of Tasks - based on the entry of tasks, dates, dependencies, and responsibility levels, the tool determines the critical path, and the resourcing necessary to complete the project. • Automated Project Tracking - allows tracking against original estimates and dates, and provides the Project Manager with the information needed to identify and solve potential problems. • Automated Forms Production - provides a mechanism to enter and print all the necessary forms for a project.

Tools are available that satisfy each of these functional areas, however, no single tool offers the integration of the planning functions with an effective means of tracking. The Project Manager must determine the project's needs and choose the best tools available.

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Craig is renowned in the tech industry around the world as a Blogger, Author, Technologist, Enterprise Architect, Cloud Architect, and Blockchain/Cryptocurrency Expert. He is regularly contributing to startups in the tech and fintech space.

I think that it is still true to say that many organizations continue to use point tools for various aspects of project management and project lifecycle especially in systems integration and systems development projects. Few companies are leveraging tools like IS Unify that can bring together the entire ERP for IT process into a single tool.

"You are not right saying that tools can not perfrom different tasks at the same time. I agree with previous commentator that there are modern tools which combine everything you want there. For example, I use Comindware task manager and it can do practically everything.
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"I'm not quite sure why you think that project management tools can't plan and track the tasks at the same time - unless I've misunderstood something :)

I work at a company that develops an online project management tool called HappyTodos (http://www.happytodos.com) and you can both plan out your project and tasks, AND track them, all in one easy-to-use- dashboard. "